Myrtle Beach a top spot for second homes. Retirees or soon-to-be choosing location
When it comes to buying their home away from home, more people are turning to the Myrtle Beach area for a second home.
But those homes don’t come cheap.
Buyers can expect to pay on average $242,800 for a home in the Myrtle Beach area, according to a study by SmartAsset, an online site that offers financial information and advice.
The city ranked among the top 10 most popular places for second homes, according to the site’s 2023 report.
SmartAsset analyzed data for more than 400 metro areas by determining the percentage of mortgages for secondary residences.
The study showed that in the Myrtle Beach metro area, which includes Conway and North Myrtle Beach, 47% of approved mortgages were taken out for secondary homes. That is an increase of nearly 16% of second homes purchased compared to last year’s report.
According to the report, 11,478, out of 24,683, mortgages were approved for secondary residences in 2021.
In the 2022 report, the Myrtle Beach area had 16,320 new mortgages taken out in 2020 and 5,007 (nearly 31%) were for second homes.
The numbers come from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Database and is specific to owner-occupied housing that doesn’t serve as a principal dwelling, which includes second homes, vacation homes and rental properties, the report said.
“This has been a continual trend over the last decade,” said Angela Fabbri, communications marketing director for Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors. “We are seeing more and more people flocking to the area.”
There has been a lot of competition for available house inventory because of people buying second homes, Fabbri said.
Most of the second home buying, which includes condos, is happening along the coast, Fabbri said, and not so much inland, as in the Conway area.
Many of those home buyers skew toward retirees or future retirees, Fabbri said.
Fabbri said that buyers will often purchase a home a few years before their retirement and then eventually make it permanent.
A number of people also are purchasing second homes as income property, she said.
It’s difficult to know how many homes in Horry County are second homes because people aren’t required to declare how they plan to use it, said Horry County Assessor Larry Roscoe. They are, however, required to declare the usage on their mortgage, he said.
But with the booming real estate market in the Myrtle Beach area, Roscoe wouldn’t be surprised if the area isn’t at the top of the list for every home category, including homes and rentals.
“We’re probably up at the top for all those classes of property,” he said.
He hopes that the area will soon be No. 1 in commercial growth, which is usually what follows in the next two to three years.
Another South Carolina city that made the top 10 list for second homes is the Hilton Head-Bluffton area, where homes average about $366,000, the report said.
